Tagged RAC

Can Reform center’s new director maneuver in polarized D.C.?

WASHINGTON (JTA) — With an agenda that has come to match almost perfectly with the priorities of the Democratic Party, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center has not had an easy time of it in an increasingly polarized Washington. But Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the center’s incoming leader, may have… Read more »

Reform’s Religious Action Center a temple of Jewish political activism at 50

Reform movement leader Maurice Eisendrath, with Torah scroll, meets President John F. Kennedy, left, in the White House Rose Garden, along with several other leaders in 1961. (Photo courtesy Washington Jewish Week)

While driving through Miami in the early 1950s, Kivie Kaplan spotted a sign that would change his life and eventually alter America’s political landscape. It read:”No dogs, no niggers, no kikes.” That jarring discovery caused Kaplan, a wealthy Jewish American businessman, to declare, “I’m going to spend the rest… Read more »